{"id":366,"date":"2012-02-07T21:06:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-07T10:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/scaling-a-mountain\/"},"modified":"2021-03-22T10:55:08","modified_gmt":"2021-03-21T23:55:08","slug":"scaling-a-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/","title":{"rendered":"Scaling a mountain: editing a novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been working on the edits for my novel<\/a>. Slowly going through, moving a mass of words around. Putting all that thinking<\/a> into action. And you know what? It feels pretty good. Now that I’ve actually started, I’m remembering that I was the person who wrote the book in the first place. Of course I can make changes to make it better!<\/p>\n

I’m about 100 pages in at the moment. Still in the foothills, with an enormous climb ahead of me. The big changes are still ahead, waiting, looming, but my travels through the foothills are helping me to set up a good base for when that moment arrives.<\/p>\n

I think it’s going to be okay. At least until I find myself hanging out over a precipice with no safety net and nothing between me and a very thin plot line (not that this will happen, of course… no way).<\/p>\n

Starting really is the best cure for fear. You can’t focus on the anxiety while you’re trying to flesh out a character or build a setting.<\/p>\n

All will be well. Just as long as I keep climbing – and don’t look down.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"So<\/a>Are you new here? Welcome to my blog! I\u2019m Allison Tait and you can find out <\/strong>more about me here<\/strong><\/a> and more about my <\/strong>online writing courses here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Subscribe to <\/strong>So You Want To Be A Writer podcast<\/strong><\/a> for more amazing writing advice. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Or check out So You Want To Be A Writer (the book), where my co-author Valerie Khoo and I have distilled the best tips from hundreds of author and industry expert interviews. <\/strong>Find out more and buy it here<\/strong><\/a>. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been working on the edits for my novel. Slowly going through, moving a mass of words around. Putting all that thinking into action. And you know what? It feels pretty good. Now that I’ve actually started, I’m remembering that I was the person who wrote the book in the first place. Of course I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[722],"class_list":["post-366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-editing-your-novel"],"yoast_head":"\nScaling a mountain: editing a novel - Allison Tait Author<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Editing a novel is like scaling a mountain. One word in front of the other until you reach the top... then back down againl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scaling a mountain: editing a novel - Allison Tait Author\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Editing a novel is like scaling a mountain. One word in front of the other until you reach the top... then back down againl\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Allison Tait Author\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AllisonTaitWriter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-07T10:06:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-21T23:55:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Allison-Tait-Logo.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"286\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Allison Tait\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Allison Tait\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Allison Tait\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#\/schema\/person\/277afd61b41e1b23d976e1ae2f09cf46\"},\"headline\":\"Scaling a mountain: editing a novel\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-07T10:06:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-21T23:55:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/\"},\"wordCount\":289,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Allison-Tait-Logo.png\",\"keywords\":[\"editing your novel\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Writing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/\",\"name\":\"Scaling a mountain: editing a novel - Allison Tait Author\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Allison-Tait-Logo.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-07T10:06:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-21T23:55:08+00:00\",\"description\":\"Editing a novel is like scaling a mountain. One word in front of the other until you reach the top... then back down againl\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Allison-Tait-Logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Allison-Tait-Logo.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":286,\"caption\":\"Allison Tait blog\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Scaling a mountain: editing a novel\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/\",\"name\":\"Allison Tait Author\",\"description\":\"Adventure, Mystery, Almost History\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Allison Tait | Author\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/logo_sm1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/logo_sm1.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":286,\"caption\":\"Allison Tait | Author\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AllisonTaitWriter\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/allisontaitwriter\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#\/schema\/person\/277afd61b41e1b23d976e1ae2f09cf46\",\"name\":\"Allison Tait\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e4dfb414ad67df8aa68d6a62bc02c6ba2a7f718fd8f98b9b00f49451ae17f246?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e4dfb414ad67df8aa68d6a62bc02c6ba2a7f718fd8f98b9b00f49451ae17f246?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Allison Tait\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/author\/altait\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Scaling a mountain: editing a novel - Allison Tait Author","description":"Editing a novel is like scaling a mountain. One word in front of the other until you reach the top... then back down againl","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Scaling a mountain: editing a novel - Allison Tait Author","og_description":"Editing a novel is like scaling a mountain. One word in front of the other until you reach the top... then back down againl","og_url":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/","og_site_name":"Allison Tait Author","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AllisonTaitWriter","article_published_time":"2012-02-07T10:06:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-03-21T23:55:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":286,"url":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Allison-Tait-Logo.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Allison Tait","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Allison Tait","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/"},"author":{"name":"Allison Tait","@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#\/schema\/person\/277afd61b41e1b23d976e1ae2f09cf46"},"headline":"Scaling a mountain: editing a novel","datePublished":"2012-02-07T10:06:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-03-21T23:55:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/"},"wordCount":289,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Allison-Tait-Logo.png","keywords":["editing your novel"],"articleSection":["Writing"],"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/","url":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/","name":"Scaling a mountain: editing a novel - Allison Tait Author","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Allison-Tait-Logo.png","datePublished":"2012-02-07T10:06:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-03-21T23:55:08+00:00","description":"Editing a novel is like scaling a mountain. One word in front of the other until you reach the top... then back down againl","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Allison-Tait-Logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Allison-Tait-Logo.png","width":600,"height":286,"caption":"Allison Tait blog"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2012\/02\/scaling-a-mountain\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Scaling a mountain: editing a novel"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/","name":"Allison Tait Author","description":"Adventure, Mystery, Almost History","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#organization","name":"Allison Tait | Author","url":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/logo_sm1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/logo_sm1.png","width":600,"height":286,"caption":"Allison Tait | Author"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AllisonTaitWriter","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/allisontaitwriter\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#\/schema\/person\/277afd61b41e1b23d976e1ae2f09cf46","name":"Allison Tait","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e4dfb414ad67df8aa68d6a62bc02c6ba2a7f718fd8f98b9b00f49451ae17f246?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e4dfb414ad67df8aa68d6a62bc02c6ba2a7f718fd8f98b9b00f49451ae17f246?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Allison Tait"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/allisontait.com"],"url":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/author\/altait\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}